Dalene Duvenage (DSyRM)

Phyllis Latour was born in April 1921 in South Africa. Her father was a French doctor married to Louise, a British citizen living in South Africa. In 1941, she moved from South Africa to England and later became a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent. The SOE was established to gather secret information and disrupt enemy operations in countries controlled by the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany. On May 1, 1944, she parachuted into Normandy to operate as part of the Scientist circuit. Fluent in French, Phyllis posed as a teenage girl whose family had moved to the region to escape Allied bombing. She cleverly rode bicycles around the area, selling soap and engaging in conversations with German soldiers. Phyllis had a remarkable method for encoding military intelligence she obtained. She used one-time codes printed on a piece of silk, which she concealed by wrapping it around a knitting needle inserted into a flat shoelace she used to tie up her hair. She would then translate the encoded messages using Morse code equipment. Despite being searched on several occasions and even brought in for questioning, the German authorities never suspected her hair tie's hidden purpose, leading to her release. Latour's efforts were crucial, and her 135 coded messages played a significant role in guiding bombing missions to enemy targets. Remarkably, Phyllis Latour is the sole surviving female Special Operations Executive agent from World War II, and at the time of writing, she is 102 years old.